Secretary LaHood Urges Train Advocates to Keep Fighting

Listen [MP3] to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood’s remarks before NARP’s 2011 Capitol Hill Reception in which he thanks train advocates for their decades of hard work and urges us to maintain momentum for the next generation of transportation.

Remarks of US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood before NARP’s Council of Representatives, members and guests - Tuesday, May 3, 2011, 6:00 PM - Rayburn House Office Building, Banquet Hall B354:

Click here for full audio (MP3 format)

Welcome to Washington, everybody. Where are Joe and Karen? Come up here. I want you to meet our Rail Administrator, Joe Szabo, who spent his entire life working on the railroad. His family goes way, way back. We couldn’t have found a better person to be our Administrator for our rail program. Joe has just done an outstanding job. He’s from Chicago, and has just devoted his life to the rail business.

Karen Rae came to us also having devoted much of her career to rail and both of them have been so instrumental in so many things, but most especially in putting forth the President’s plan for high-speed rail. So I want you to be sure and say hello to them. Let me just say a word or two.

First of all, I’m so happy that so many rail enthusiasts are in Washington. I know you have only one job to do. Only one.  How many of you have already talked to your Congressman or Senator? [Almost all hands go up]. That’s the most important thing you could have done. To come to Washington and talk to your Representative and Senators about the importance of high-speed rail.

Now lookit, high-speed rail is coming to America. There’s no goin’ back. We’re on our way. [Applause]  But you all laid the groundwork for it. We would not be in the position we’re in if it weren’t for the advocacy of so many of you, over a long period of time, who have believed in passenger rail, and believe that passenger rail should really be a part of America’s intermodal transportation system.

The second part of that partnership is the President. You all have traveled to Europe and Asia, you all have ridden the rails over there, you know how magnificent they are, you know how good they are, you come back to America and say “why haven’t we made the investment?” Because we never had a President who was willing to make the kind of investment that President Obama has made. That’s one of the reasons we love working for the President. Because of his… [Applause drowns LaHood out]

Because of his vision to connect 80 percent of America—that’s our dream: 80 percent of America connected by high-speed and intercity rail over the next 25 years—now that’s half the time it took to build the Interstate system. And, lookit, we’re on our way. We invested $11 billion. And we’re not gonna let an election or two dissuade us from our idea that we’re gonna connect 80 percent… [loud applause].

Over the next 10 days, watch our Website, watch the news, we will be announcing how we will be distributing another $2 billion that came back from Florida. Raise your hand if you’re from Florida [laughter]. I mean this very sincerely: you all have worked so hard in Florida and had such a great plan; that’s the reason we invested the second largest amount of money in Florida, because so many people worked so hard. It’s still a good plan; it really is. There’s only one person in Florida who doesn’t like the rail plan. Only one. We only found one. [laughs] There is one; that’s it. But for those of you from Florida: don’t be dissuaded, hang in there, I know you worked hard.

For those of you in the rest of the country: high-speed rail is coming to America; we invested $11 billion. In just about every place in the country. We will continue to make investments. The President’s 2012 budget, if you look at it, $50 billion for high-speed intercity rail over the next 6 years. No one’s [topped] that. [Applause]

But I want to thank you because we would not be in the position we’re in, the President would not be in the position he’s in, if you all hadn’t worked so hard over so many years. It’s just so important that we continue the momentum, and we will continue the momentum. There’s just no stopping us now.

There’s two other groups I wanna thank. I wanna thank our friends at Amtrak. [Applause] We would not be in the position we’re in were it not for our friends at Amtrak. They’ve been in the rail business a long time; they’ve taken their lumps. I am so happy, and you all know this, Amtrak is making money. People like riding their trains. The passenger loads are way, way up. In some instances, particularly along the Northeast Corridor, they’re full all the time. I took the train to New York a couple of weekends ago and it was full. I didn’t take the Acela, I took the regular train, I’m a government worker so ... [laughter]. The train was full coming out and it was full going back. There were no seats on either train. So we’re happy for Amtrak. They’ve got great leadership. They’ve got a great Board. They’re making money. And they have said to America that the investments that you’ve made of your hard-earned tax dollars have paid off great dividends. So a big, big round of applause for our friends at Amtrak. [Applause]

Secondly, I wanna thank our friends in the Class I rail, because we could not ... [applause] ... we could not make the kind of investments we’re making without the Class I freights. I mean, there’s not enough money to build all the track we need to be building if we didn’t have the opportunity to use the frieght rail system. That’s the reason we invested half of our TIGER money, over $500 million, we gave to the Class Is to fix up the tracks. We did it selfishly to fix up the tracks, to fix up the infrastructure, so that we could put passenger trains on these rails that [would go] a little faster than the freight [trains] do. So our friends at the Class 1s, they’ve been partners; they really have. We’ve reached agreements with UP, BNSF, the Norfolk Southern, Canadian Pacific. Let’s hear it for the Class Is! [Applause]

You’ve sold your Member of Congress. Make sure they’re in there fighting for high-speed rail money. We’re gonna be fighting for it. That’s what we’ll be doing over the next several months as they work on a budget and we come up with a transportation program. We need a bill, we need a transportation bill that reflects the idea that we wanna continue to make investments in roads and bridges and transit and all the things that we’ve been doing, but also we want to have a transportation bill that really reflects the President’s vision for high-speed and intercity rail. It’s so important that that is included in the transportation bill. ‘Cause that’s what Americans want. It’s what all you want; it’s what Americans want. They’re looking for other ways to get around this country.

We have a state-of-the-art Interstate system, There’s no question about it. What Americans want is to be able to get from one place to another by using high-speed intercity rail. So it’s coming to America. Thank you for all your efforts. You’ve got great partners at DOT; I know Joe [Szabo] will be with you tomorrow. We’ll be speaking to you and answering your questions. But again, a big, big thanks to all of you for what you’ve done. You have been great, and we’ll continue the momentum, 25 years from now, and not for us.

Here’s what I say about high-speed rail: it’s the next generation of transportation for the next generation. Some of us will never ride on it. But what our predecessors and ancestors and people who came before us did for us, they built an Interstate system. What we’re gonna do for our kids and grandkids is build a class one, state of the art, passenger rail system for our kids and grandkids. The next generation of transportation, high-speed and intercity rail, for the next generation. Thanks for all your hard work. [Applause]